Her epic solo flight has broken three world records.
1. Zara at 19yrs old is the youngest female pilot to circumnavigate the globe by aircraft, solo
2. She is the youngest person to circumnavigate solo in a microlight aircraft
3. Zara is also the first Belgian to have circumnavigated the world flying solo
In order for her flight to qualify, Zara had to include one pair of antipodals (points diametrically perfectly opposite to each other on the globe). On 3 September 2021 she visited the first antipodal: Quibdo, Colombia (the wettest city on Earth). On 21 December she visited the second antipodal: Jakarta, Indonesia.
As one of her sponsors, Eurobond Adhesives is proud to have played a small part in her realising her dreams. Commenting at the end of her adventure, Eurobond Adhesives’ Managing Director Simon Dearing, a keen aviator himself, says: “Zara is an inspirational ambassador to all young women. She has achieved her dream, overcoming her fears, enduring extremely hostile and dangerous environments, flying over Californian wild fires, active volcanoes in Iceland, typhoons in Indonesia, dodging volatile North Korean airspace and has remained focussed throughout. We hope that other young women will be inspired to challenge themselves and follow careers in technology and science.”
Eurobond Adhesives shares much in common with Zara: embracing cutting edge technology, pushing boundaries and challenging science – in this case to produce high performance bonding solutions that have been tested and proven in the most demanding of environments. 70% of the Eurobond workforce is female and everyone in the company has been keenly following her world record attempt.
What next for Zara? Well, she will be off to university this year. After that she has set her sights a little higher and hopes one day to become an astronaut.
Some interesting facts and figures:
• Zara flew around the world in a Shark Aero aircraft, one of the fastest ultralight aircraft in the world (up to 300km/h). It was designed in the Czech Republic and manufactured in Slovakia
• Completing her world record, Zara has flown a total distance of 52,080.3km (28,121 nautical miles)
• The epic journey has taken Zara 155 days, almost five months
• She has spent a total time of 200 hours in the air, completed 71 take-offs and landings
• Longest flight over land was: 2000km (1080 nautical miles)
• Longest flight over water was: 1861km (1005 nautical miles)
• Highest altitude flown: 4200 metres (13,800 ft), over Greenland
• Continents visited: Five
• Countries visited: 41
• Highest temperature: +32 (Jakarta, Indonesia)
• Lowest temperature: -34 (Magadan, Russia)
Zara’s mission
With her flight, Zara’s aim was to encourage and inspire girls and young women to pursue their dreams and reduce the gender gap in aviation as well as in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).